Display systems for use in instructional situations, such as class-rooms, convention booths, and the like, have long been known. The systems typically involve some type of display panel, capable of standing alone or being arranged in a group, or being affixed to a wall, alone or in an array. Informational materials, in the form of letters, numbers, pictorial images, or other shapes are often affixed to such panels, and may be affixed by various means, including magnetic attachment media, open staples or tacks, adhesives, or the like.
Such systems have often been employed in settings where children play, but allowing the children themselves to play with the display pieces has been limited for a number of reasons, including the hazards associated with staples and tacks, or chemical adhesives or the like, or the costs of magnetic attachment media.
In recent years, another attachment means has become popular which employs hook or loop fabric, commonly known and commercially available under the trademark VELCRO.RTM. or VELTEX.RTM. brand loop laminates, and several references show display systems employing such hook or loop fabric connectors. For the most part, however, the display panels which employ such hook or loop fabric have been limited because of the necessary weight of the supporting substrate and the complex construction. Conventional hook or loop display panels have generally been of two construction types. In the first type, a groove is cut into the lateral edge of the structural material, and the lateral edge of the hook or loop fabric, or both lateral edges if the panel is to be two-sided, are tucked into the groove and adhesively bonded. The second type of construction is to wrap and adhesively bond a lateral edge of a first hook or loop fabric around a lateral edge of a first support structure, wrap and adhesively bond a lateral edge of a second hook or loop fabric around a lateral edge of a second support structure, then bond together the two support structures back-to-back with the fabric facing outwardly. Such construction methods mandate a display panel of significant weight, thickness and, most importantly, expense.
At the same time, children have been provided with numerous three-dimensional toys permitting the attachment of colors and shapes to a stuffed doll or three-dimensional stuffed object with hook or loop fabric. However, such toys limit the child's imagination to creating different figures around a base stuffed doll or three-dimensional object. Other known three-dimensional-figure toys include a set of blocks covered with hook or loop fabric which can be arranged in different patterns to create different toy figures, such as trains, cars and people. However, the set of blocks covered with hook-and-loop material limits the child's imagination to creating figures with static elements. There is a need in the toy/education field for a toy which will allow a child to make three-dimensional figures which permit the maximum use of the child's imagination. The present invention meets this need by providing a plurality of flexible elements which are constructed of hook-and-loop material which can be releasably attached to each other to form different figures. Such figures can be releasably attached to display panels which are constructed of hook-and-loop material, such as the display panels known in the art, or the display panels of the present invention.